Went to the tip shop the other day and spied an alloy rim rear wheel among all the bike stuff. Checked it out and and it's got an Airlite flip-flop hub and a Fiamme Brevetto Longhi tubular rim (27"), all 50's vintage and in fair nick. Payed $2 for it thinking that I will use the hub on my '46 Malvern Star 3 Star project.

The trouble is that I can't bring myself to cut it up, it's too nice. The spokes are stainless steel, 1.8mm at the (brass) nipple but 1.5mm for the rest of their length and wired together where they cross with that wire then covered in solder. The axle spins freely and the rim is fairly true.

I may put it up on the 'bay and see what I can get or maybe see what I can swap it for. Hmmm, decisions, decisions.

The bottom line is Takai that this bike is similar to millions of others. Personally I like the Gemini brand and they made a pretty respectable touring model. You can read all about it if you look deeper in here.

If your a collector, keep the bike in standard nick and hide it for twenty years or so. Or if your after a warm fussy feeling donate it to the Salvos. There's better things around you could use to build fixed wheel dick winder bikes than this.

I reckon this thread should read Hard (to find) Rubbish... not Hard Rubbish finds. My sis lives in a dead-end in West End (Bris). Pickup time looms. The pro scavengers reverse with great difficulty (Brisbanites will understand) into her little street. her partner realises that they've also picked up 2 Xmas-vintage kiddie bikes (stupidly) left at end of her neighbour's drive overnight. Having a keen social conscience, he dons his stubbies and chases/retrieves them. Pros indeed, in a proper-like truck, with steel-reinforcing mesh sides.

I haven't even been trying in the last week. Hard waste pickup due in my suburb this coming Monday.

Hopped on the runabout hack to ride down the bottle-o last weekend and picked up an Large sized Avanti MTB. A cheaper model, but mostly with servicable bits. Only thing really wrong with it is that the replacable steel RD hanger got bashed in and bent. Previous owner/thief obviously clueless/p!55ed mangled it a bit with some gouging to the ally dropout. I pulled off the chain & mangled Alivio derailleur...... et voila perfect SS MTB candidate. Mech. disc brakes, rims and tubes seem perfectly functional as is.

Today, on my way home through the 'burb from from an Audax ride, coming from a different direction.... a Malvern Star Mixte with Golden Arrow F+R Derailleurs. Frame itself isn't too bad compared against some Malverns of the period; with a wacky middle tube lug for the mixte downtube and even forged drop outs. Surprised it even has alloy lady bars!

Oh yeah.. and a Repco RT sport. 1020 Hi-Ten goodness. Fascinating old remnants of a 4 AA battery powered cycle computer. The frame tubing should be good for my brazing practice. All the other bits & bones will be on my verge tomorrow

- KymProud to have been a regular during BNA's heyday. I'm still reachable by PM (email alerts) - dec 2016

So we get the leaders we deserve and we elect, we get the companies and the products that we ask for, right? And we have to ask for different things. – Paul Gildingbut really, that's rubbish. We get none of it because the choices are illusory.

Stripped down the Mixte just now. Reasonable quality bits, which surprised me for most other contemporary Malvern Stars I've come across. H codes on the Shimano bits all suggest 1983. Obviously a loved bike for at least good portion of its life... it got a regular coatings of grease, making it a pleasure, if a dirty one, to disassemble.

Had to laugh at the hubs; "Chair" Brand with a little logo of, you guessed it, a chair.

- KymProud to have been a regular during BNA's heyday. I'm still reachable by PM (email alerts) - dec 2016

HappyHumber wrote:Stripped down the Mixte just now. Reasonable quality bits, which surprised me for most other contemporary Malvern Stars I've come across. H codes on the Shimano bits all suggest 1983. Obviously a loved bike for at least good portion of its life... it got a regular coatings of grease, making it a pleasure, if a dirty one, to disassemble.

Had to laugh at the hubs; "Chair" Brand with a little logo of, you guessed it, a chair.

Come across a few pairs, always really smooth hubs. Someone might correct me if I'm wrong, but Chair brand became Sunshine became Sansin became Suntour. Or something like that. Bit of history to them.

Quote "Sansin/SunshineSanshin made Sunshine hubs. My understanding is that the company picked "Sunshine" as a brand name since it sounded close to Sanshin, non-Japanese had trouble pronouncing Sanshin, and Sunshine has nice English-language connotations. Around 1985 the company seems to have dropped Sunshine and labeled its product Sanshin.

In addition to producing product under its own label, Sanshin also acted as a subcontractor for SunTour; all SunTour-labelled hubs came from Sanshin. I don't know if there was any corporate cross-ownership, but, in the late '80s, Sanshin's president was Mamoru Kawai, the younger son of Junzo Kawai, Maeda/SunTour's chairman.

Sanshin's factory was in Shiga-ken, maybe an hour from Maeda's offices in Sakai-shi. In the mid-'80s, Sanshin was diversifying a bit into forging auto parts. I don't know what happened to them when Maeda was purchased then went under.

Sanshin made a beautiful ProAm model high-flange hub in the late '70s. The flanges only had 5 cut-outs, leaving a distinctive star-shaped center section. Very nice bearing quality, lots of polish and pretty anodizing.

--Paul Brodek"- Unquote.

Hope this explains it a little, it was a fairly close relationship between the 2 companies.

It's hard rubbish time out my way and the number of low end dept store type bikes out is astounding

Nonetheless, yesterday's school run returned a roughed up but very much complete GT Chucker 2.0 (disk brakes and single speed conversion!), a tidy Malvern star mtb and a Dick Tresidder unicycle that I'm yet to goad WyvernRH with

A friend of mine has a friend who has had this sitting out in the rain, rusting away, for years. So I offered to take it off his hands. Thanks to Velobase I can tell you that it has the following parts on it: Campagnolo 1010 drop outs; Normandy Luxe Competition hubs with a flip flop rear; Nisi Corsa Toro rims; SR RY5 cranks (which have been drilled out with five holes along each of the arms); SR LA-5 chain wheels; SR 150 quill pedals; Golden Arrow front derailleur; Cinelli 1A stem; SR Custom Melt.Forging seat post; broken Shimano Tourney rear derailleur (it looks much more recent - I wish it had a Golden Arrow on the back); Zeus Gran Sport down tube shifters; Weinmann 600 brakes; and, some pretty ordinary looking Dia Comp brake levers. No badges or decals so I don't know what it is/was. Has "55 66" stamped into the BB. It is a 2 x 5 speed so I imagine it must be late 70s or early 80s. Can you tell anything about the bike from the lug set?

Last edited by EnfantDeGuerre on Fri Feb 22, 2013 11:18 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I was surprised by the lack of interest. $36 I'm in the same boat re too far so I'm counting on a sibling. I'll probably part it out. I bought another Hoffy off this guy last year so I had his phone number and got a break down of all the parts - Zeus brakes, 2nd series Superbe Pro rear Mech, Dura-Ace BB, Cinelli bars and stem, SR Laprade seat post and French hubs with a double M symbol relaced with stainless, he's semi literate and couldn't read the headset but it's Italian. I don't know what to do with the frame either.

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